mtnrunner260
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 26, 2015
- Messages
- 311
I really enjoy this forum along with everything else Randy does so finally got around to posting my UT deer adventure from this year.
I have never muzzleloader hunted but wanted to give it a try so I got a gun, CVA accura and got to work on load development.
With the gun thing figured out it was time for the hunt at the end of September.
My mom agreed to come down and watch our 3 young boys so the wife and I headed off to the mountain. I had a high country basin in mind. We made the 6 mile hike in the day before season, set up camp and got to glassing.
The only thing we saw was a lone mountain goat. He sure was picturesque on the rock face in the evening light but I didn't get any pics.
We worked around the basin the next day, staying in the shadows and glassing the slopes along with the basin meadows. We did not spot a single animal. It was quite cold with ice on all the small ponds so I let my bride stand in the sun for 30 seconds.
Things were not looking good and after lunch I made the decision that it was time to execute plan B.
We hiked the six miles out to the truck and drove around the mountain to another area.
Not sure what our plan would be or where we would end up so we just ate at the truck and headed out for a quick evening hunt. I didn't set up the tent thinking we might just sleep in the truckbed to maintain mobility.
Not far from leaving the truck I glassed 3 small bucks in the binos. I subscribe to the shoot the first legal animal I see method. It helps with keeping the freezer full and despite my desire to be in the mountains as much as possible it does help keep the wife happy.
A plan was devised to swing around and get above the bucks and hopefully they would follow the script of feeding out into view in the right spot.
While hurrying over to our perch we kicked up 4 bucks from the bottom of a ravine. At first I didn't even take the gun off my shoulder as I figured they were on their way over the ridge and out of my life. But they slowed down on the other side of the ravine. A quick range showed them at 120 yards so I dropped the pack and got into position to shoot. It took me a couple seconds to get comfortable all while thinking they would bolt at any second.
I put the crosshairs on one of the bucks that was quartering away slightly and squeezed the trigger.
3 of the 4 ran over the hill while the one I aimed at followed the contour but ran as if nothing was wrong. I felt good about the shot but there was no THAWCK and couldn't see any signs of a hit.
I'm sure it was comical to watch me reload, I dumped one tube of powder on the ground and fumbled around but finally got it done.
After getting a sabot down the barrel the 3 bucks that had run over the hill came back over just a couple hundred yards away. They were joined by a 4th buck that really made me question if my shot connected. They milled around for several minutes letting me see both sides through the binos but I couldn't find any blood.
My wife felt that I had missed the shot but I am not convinced she was looking at the right one. I told her the plan was to stay still until the bucks worked their way out of sight, go check for blood and if there was nothing to be found we would hustle back to where the bucks disappeared hoping to turn them up again.
After what seemed like multiple hours (probably 5 minutes) the deer moved out of sight and we went over to check for blood.
Once I got to where the deer was standing we found blood right away. We track him around the hill to where he was piled up. I can't believe he traveled 150 yards. The shot went in behind the last rib, through the heart and into the offside shoulder.
It was a great hunt and a ton of fun to be able to do it with the wife. Plus it resulted in my best Utah buck to date.
I have never muzzleloader hunted but wanted to give it a try so I got a gun, CVA accura and got to work on load development.
With the gun thing figured out it was time for the hunt at the end of September.
My mom agreed to come down and watch our 3 young boys so the wife and I headed off to the mountain. I had a high country basin in mind. We made the 6 mile hike in the day before season, set up camp and got to glassing.
The only thing we saw was a lone mountain goat. He sure was picturesque on the rock face in the evening light but I didn't get any pics.
We worked around the basin the next day, staying in the shadows and glassing the slopes along with the basin meadows. We did not spot a single animal. It was quite cold with ice on all the small ponds so I let my bride stand in the sun for 30 seconds.
Things were not looking good and after lunch I made the decision that it was time to execute plan B.
We hiked the six miles out to the truck and drove around the mountain to another area.
Not sure what our plan would be or where we would end up so we just ate at the truck and headed out for a quick evening hunt. I didn't set up the tent thinking we might just sleep in the truckbed to maintain mobility.
Not far from leaving the truck I glassed 3 small bucks in the binos. I subscribe to the shoot the first legal animal I see method. It helps with keeping the freezer full and despite my desire to be in the mountains as much as possible it does help keep the wife happy.
A plan was devised to swing around and get above the bucks and hopefully they would follow the script of feeding out into view in the right spot.
While hurrying over to our perch we kicked up 4 bucks from the bottom of a ravine. At first I didn't even take the gun off my shoulder as I figured they were on their way over the ridge and out of my life. But they slowed down on the other side of the ravine. A quick range showed them at 120 yards so I dropped the pack and got into position to shoot. It took me a couple seconds to get comfortable all while thinking they would bolt at any second.
I put the crosshairs on one of the bucks that was quartering away slightly and squeezed the trigger.
3 of the 4 ran over the hill while the one I aimed at followed the contour but ran as if nothing was wrong. I felt good about the shot but there was no THAWCK and couldn't see any signs of a hit.
I'm sure it was comical to watch me reload, I dumped one tube of powder on the ground and fumbled around but finally got it done.
After getting a sabot down the barrel the 3 bucks that had run over the hill came back over just a couple hundred yards away. They were joined by a 4th buck that really made me question if my shot connected. They milled around for several minutes letting me see both sides through the binos but I couldn't find any blood.
My wife felt that I had missed the shot but I am not convinced she was looking at the right one. I told her the plan was to stay still until the bucks worked their way out of sight, go check for blood and if there was nothing to be found we would hustle back to where the bucks disappeared hoping to turn them up again.
After what seemed like multiple hours (probably 5 minutes) the deer moved out of sight and we went over to check for blood.
Once I got to where the deer was standing we found blood right away. We track him around the hill to where he was piled up. I can't believe he traveled 150 yards. The shot went in behind the last rib, through the heart and into the offside shoulder.
It was a great hunt and a ton of fun to be able to do it with the wife. Plus it resulted in my best Utah buck to date.
